For some viewers, even fans of smart, high-quality TV, there may come a point when too many dark, layered television series become just as tiresome as too many look-alike procedurals. We haven't yet reached that point with Boardwalk Empire, but some episodes are more admirable than enjoyable.

Viewers who cringe at pathos may miss the occasionally lighter tone of earlier Mad Men seasons. But these are the circumstances the characters find themselves in. Besides, at this point in a series' run, most viewers are tuning in for the character stories, where some grace and positivity still pop up.

It’s a lush production--The costumes! The locations!--that’s still appropriately gritty for its 1529 setting and sure to appeal to fans of historical fiction. But it may be a bit slow-paced for fans of Showtime’s “The Tudors,” which told the same story with more soapy shenanigans and gusto. Mr. Rylance gives a quietly commanding performance as the intelligent, politically astute Cromwell.

Three years may seem like a long wait for the next “Toy Story” film but if the Disney-Pixar bosses want to fill the gap by turning loose the imaginations of their team on entertaining, wildly creative shorts like Toy Story that Time Forgot, fans will surely approve.

[The audience] will see some wonderful acting, especially from the luminous McDonald as Walter Lee's wife, Ruth. And they will see the movie debut of director Leon, who has helped turn these fine stage performances into convincing movie work, with the help of a screenplay by Paris Qualles that opens up the play into small additional scenes that will be a special pleasure for those who already know the play on stage.

Revealing more of what makes these characters tick could remove some of the mystery about them, but Portlandia makes a compelling comedic case for offering this backstory.... The humor is broader and funnier in this half-hour [second episode] that also delivers some surprising plot twists whie acknowledging thier "logic problems."

Writer/creator Nancy Miller ("Any Day Now") imbues the show with touches both subtle and a little overwrought but the divine "Grace" still offers stronger characters and better stories than many other summer series.

It’s a dark, sometimes brooding hour, but that’s pretty typical for Mad Men, which emphasizes its characters and their development (or lack thereof) over plot. With its emphasis on mortality, Sunday’s episode is a fitting start to the Mad Men swan song.

This first episode has brief nods to the deaths last season of two series regulars--Owen and Toshiko--and it acknowledges advances in the relationship between bisexual Jack and Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd). But more than anything it's a propulsive action-adventure.

The new Upstairs gets off to a somewhat slow start in the first of three one-hour installments, but in its second and third episodes the dramatic engines rev as the political climate of the day begins to drive the story.